As is well known, a microscope is an instrument that produces magnified images of objects. In the past, an observer had to bring his or her eyes to an eyepiece in order to observe an object. Recently, along with the development of technologies, video microscopy systems are being commercially distributed. Such video microscopy systems display an object on a monitor such that an observer can magnify the object without restrictions in his/her actions (e.g. the observer needing to keep his/her eyes on an eyepiece).
Currently, the use of such video microscopy systems is increasing in the healthcare industry including surgical operations and a variety of other industrial fields.
Since a 3D video microscopy system according to the present invention is expected to be mainly used in the healthcare industry including surgical operations, the following disclosure will be given with respect to the healthcare industry. However, the 3D video microscopy system according to the present invention may be used in a variety of other industrial fields.
In general, a medical surgical microscope is a type of medical instrument used in the departments of surgery, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, otorhinolaryngology, spine surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology in medical institutions. The medical surgical microscope magnifies a body part that would otherwise not be easily seen or observed by a doctor, thereby helping the doctor to perform a surgical operation on the magnified body part.
Thus, the doctor can perform a surgical operation while observing the affected part of a patient photographed by the medical surgical microscope. In addition, assistants other than the doctor or patient guardians can observe the affected part of the patient and the proceeding of the surgical operation on a monitor in an operating room or outside the operating room.
In this case, images displayed on the monitor are merely displayed as two-dimensional (2D) images. It is therefore difficult to accurately observe and conceptualize the surgical part.
Thus, recently, three-dimensional (3D) image systems are being developed, whereby surgical proceedings are displayed as 3D images such that an affected part and the rear portion of the affected part can be observed during the surgical operation.
Some surgical microscopy systems of the related art were disclosed by Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2012-0138520 “SURGICAL MICROSCOPY SYSTEM,” Korean Patent No. 10-1092108 “SURGICAL MICROSCOPY SYSTEM,” and the like.
Referring to these disclosures, a surgical microscopy system includes an image sensor (e.g. a CCD sensor or a CMOS sensor) processing an image of an object focused thereon such that the image can be displayed on a monitor, a convex lens enabling the image of the object to be focused on the image sensor, and a magnification lens disposed between the convex lens and the image sensor to adjust the magnification of the image of the object.
As above, the surgical microscopy system of the related art uses the convex lens in order to focus the image of the object. However, due to the convex structure of the convex lens and the refracting property of the light of the image passing through the convex lens, the object is displayed as a distorted image on the monitor, i.e. the image is distorted outwards or inwards.
When a person observes the distorted image of the object displayed on the monitor, different from the original image, for a prolonged period, the distorted image may cause the person to become dizzy. This may have an adverse effect on a person performing a surgical operation. A complicated surgical operation may be hindered or a medical accident may occur.
Thus, it is strongly required not to cause dizziness even though a surgical operation is performed while a monitor is observed for a prolonged period. However, in the related art, this problem has not been yet overcome.
In the 3D image, when the parallax between the left image and the right image is not matched, the brain of a person observing the 3D image unconsciously matches the parallax of the image displayed, thereby causing dizziness and fatigue of the eyes. It is therefore important to adjust the parallax.
One of simple methods of adjusting the parallax is to adjust the distance between the object and a focusing lens within the microscope. The focusing lens focuses the object on the image sensor.
However, in the surgical microscopy system of the related art, the lens focusing the object on the image sensor is fixed, and thus it is difficult to adjust the convergence angle during the surgical operation.